Quebec official shares his Adirondack train experiences

Quebec Delegate General John Parisella and his wife Esther last Friday rode the Adirondack from New York City to Montreal, an experience that only reinforced his belief that we need a high-speed passenger rail link between the two cities.

Parisella, who attended last month’s high-speed rail forum at Albany Nanotech, shared his experiences in this blog post. While the scenery along the route was beautiful, the 381-mile trip took 11 hours. And while the rest of the world moves ahead with fast passenger trains, Parisella observes that we’re still in the 1930s.

Eric Anderson

13 Responses

I love trains. I even love hearing the train whistles at night. But his ride averaged 34 and change miles per hour. That is just too slow. I do take trains (last trip Schenectady – Baltimore round trip) because I do not like driving and I would take them even more often if there were fewer delays and it just went faster. Let’s get people out of cars and into trains!!

As a kid and spending the entire month of August hidden away 10 miles into the back woods of the Adirondacks one source of joy was watching the Train come through twice a day! My Father often recanted a number of stories about the Campfire about how he and his brothers used to Board the train in Albany with their camping gear and Canoe and and just pick a Lake along the way to spend some time at. The the Polticians and their Committees and the “know it all’s” and greedy people got involved and were going to “streamline” the business and create more jobs etc. etc. you know the standard BS Rant by these people who have ruined thousands of projects around the State and Country,,,they cut services, raised the price, and then couldn’t figure out why the Ridership suddenly dropped, then it needed a government subsidy etc. etc. You all know that story too…Now I do not think a “high speed” train over 70 mph is needed, just a “Reliable” train with a Reliable schedule and maybe more stops along the way instead of only at “major” centers along the way….or have a “tourist” or local train operating inbetween the High Speed Train. Reliablity and consistency is the key…

I love reading articles about how spectacular trains are in Europe and how we need high speed trains just like them. I have ridden trains all over Europe, and the one thing that they have over all of the trains in the US is reliability. Many trains in travel at comparable speeds to Amtrak, but they depart on time and arrive on time. When I ride Amtrak, I know that the schedule is an exercise in wishful thinking. We need to walk before we can run.

I’ve taken that train to Montreal before. The part that makes no sense is the amount of time to get from Plattsburgh to Montreal. I figured we were just about there when we left P’burgh, and started gathering my bags. Hours and hours later, we’re still not there! It must have been forced to take various track-detours that took a meandering and slow course to make that final leg thru the small towns in lower Quebec.

While Albany to NYC is an efficient (althought pricey) trip, it’s not the same with train’ing to Montreal — or even to Boston. For both, it takes a complete day off your calendar to get there and generally makes no micro-economic sense.

I’ve taken”The Adirondack” from Saratoga to Montreal and back. You sit at the border for 90 minutes or more for customs and immigration; they use the “cafe car” so you can’t eat. To any & all complaints, the ever courteous staff reminded passengers that we were a day ahead of Burgoyne’s progress!

Trains in the 1930s were faster and more reliable than most passenger trains in present day NA. They ran at clips of 70 to 90 MPH. US Customs officials were at Montreal’s Windsor Station. We have gone back a lot further than the 1930s & 1940s which was the Golden Streamlined Era of RRs.

The slow pace of the Adirondack and the former Vermont bound Montrealer and Washingtonian has been a feature of railroading for decades. Dwell time at Albany should not be so long. A local Albany express should take up the slack for NYC bound commuters. Border waits have become somewhat longer post 9-11 but they have been a problem for a long time.

Railroads have to be seen by government as
a public good and utility once again and put
on a level playing field with highways and airways.

I forgot about the issue of crossing the border. In the EU there are no internal border controls, so you can go from Lisbon to Prague without showing a passport. The UK is another story, but when you take Eurostar from Brussels to London, you clear UK passport control in Brussels. With taking the train to Canada, why can’t they do it like airplanes? Have one stop after the border, in Montreal, and run everyone through passport control and customs there.

Having also traveled on the trains in Europe I agee greatly with your comments. Years ago we use to get a Eur-rail (spelling ?) pass and plan travel from city to city at night and use the sleeper cars as our hotel room – saved a lot of daylight hours to walk the cities. Also great to stop at stations outside the city and grab some food to bring back on the train. Also was great to meet and talk to other travelers with different cultural backgrounds. Unfortunately when traveling on business less adventure is the mode.

Don’t know about you but I couldn’t believe I would be able to get around without renting a car. But the schedules (once you learned them) were as you say on time and frequent. The only times I rented a car was to go out into the country sides.

Face it, when in Albany it is easier to drive away in a car and avoid our ancient rail system. I have been to England and used their system to go from London to the south near the “English Riviera” and took not even 3 hours. Try that on when comparing the mileage when traveling into Boston, NYC or yes even Montreal, which you could blow a day on getting there. I can drive to Montreal quicker than the train can get me there. Time to think in the 21st Century I think.

The Chinese, incidentally, are lacing the country with true high speed rail (300+ km/h = 186+ mph). How did the ‘can do’ America become the ‘it’s too hard’ and ‘it’s politically unrealistic’ nation we are now? How soft are we? More importantly, can we suck it up and get it together – ever? Other nations are also burdened with politicians and bureaucrats, also full of imperfect human beings – yet they surpass us in so many things. I despair at times . . .